Calm Down, The Season Isn’t Over for the Yankees
The Yankees did not make any major moves at the trading deadline. Everyone assumed they’d get a starter or add to the bullpen, but nothing materialized.
Bob Klapisch tweeted;
Among dead-ends Yankees ran into was deal with Mets, who I’m told were ready to flip Stroman to the Bronx in exchange for Estevan Florial and Deivi Garcia, among others. Yankees said no.
The Yankees were the ones who said no to that deal. Estevan Florial and Deivi Garcia are both considered to be potential stars, and Brian Cashman just wasn’t willing to part with them here, despite the expectation his team would add a starting pitcher.
The Yanks whiffed on landing any of the big-name starting pitchers who were reportedly being shopped. Madison Bumgarner, Noah Syndergaard, Zack Wheeler and Robbie Ray all stayed put. Trevor Bauer went to Cincinnati on Tuesday night, and Tanner Roark landed in Oakland. The most coveted available starter, Zach Greinke went to the Astros, and now teams up with Gerrit Cole and Justin Verlander to form a very good rotation.
It wasn’t through a lack of trying, Yankee General Manager Brian Cashman said he engaged with every team except the Boston Red Sox.
Cashman said, “Maybe my counterparts felt my offers were underwhelming, and certainly I felt their offers were overwhelming. We just never matched up”
The only acquisition the Yankees made was for 20-year-old, left-handed pitching prospect Alfredo Garcia, who was in the Colorado Rockies’ organization. The Yanks flipped reliever Joe Harvey to Colorado in the last-minute move. No, Garcia won’t help this season or next.
I understand that some fans are angry, but you can’t mortgage the future to win the World Series. Not when you have the kind of talent the Yankees do. When these guys are on their A game, they can play with anyone.
The Astros traded top prospects for Greinke because they know the Yankees are the better team. Houston was not on Greinke’s no-Trade list and New York was, and if a pitcher isn’t interested in coming to the Bronx, it’s probably for the best:
Yankee starters have a 4.77 ERA this season and the team just gave up an astonishing 73 runs in a seven-game stretch.
Masahiro Tanaka, Domingo German, CC Sabathia and James Paxton all approached the deadline with ERAs of 4.72 or higher, and Domingo German, despite an outstanding 13–2 record, has a 4.08 ERA.
Luis Severino is going to return, and Dellin Betances will be back. The Yankees may want to consider using both guys as openers, which they have employed 12 times this year. They are 12–0.
The Yankees may have struck out at the deadline, but the season is far from over. The Bombers have survived an unprecedented amount of injuries this season, and wake up on August 1st with the best record in the American League and a 7.5 game lead over Tampa Bay, with the World Series Champion Red Sox 10 games back. Things could be much worse, especially with the poor pitching in the month of July.
The next-man-up mentality has taken this team pretty far in 2019. There is no reason to think they can’t get hot and win a championship. The rotation is certainly capable of pitching better, the bullpen ha done it’s job all year, and the depth, clutch-hitting and power give this team all the reason in the world to believe they can beat anyone.
